Democracy makes savvy people stupid, at least when they act politically. Several things account for it: the demonstrable impotence of any one vote, the consequent futility and hence wastefulness of acquiring information, the dispersal of the costs of government, and the resulting theatrical mood-setting farces called election campaigns.
Life outside politics is rather different. Our actions have a reasonable chance of making a difference to ourselves and those we care about; the costs of our actions fall largely on ourselves; and acquiring information in order to act more intelligently is thus worthwhile. As a result, those who try to sell us goods and services have an incentive to behave responsively and responsibly, unlike candidates for political office.
That's why, by and large, people act smarter in the personal realm than they do in political realm.
To see the difference, think about the saving of labor. Normally we see this as a good thing. We buy electric toothbrushes, power lawnmowers, dishwashers, clothes washers and dryers, and self-cleaning ovens, among many other things, precisely to save labor. Why? Obviously because labor is work--exertion. Most of what we think of as work we would not do if we could have the fruits without it. Saving labor through technology not only relieves us of particular exertions, it also frees us to obtain other things we want but would otherwise have to do without--including leisure. Thus labor-saving enables us to have more stuff for less exertion.
Time and energy are scarce, but our desires are infinite. That's why no one in private life fails to see labor-saving as good.
The 19th century French economist Frederic Bastiat captured this in a fable about Robinson Crusoe. Crusoe had a two-week project planned: making a plank. This would require many days of labor--cutting down a tree, trimming the trunk, and fashioning the plank just so. Next he would re-sharpen his tools and then replenish the provisions he would consume during the project. As he prepared to start the job, Friday excitedly delivered the news that a piece of wood, well-suited as a plank, had just washed up on their island. Terrible news, Crusoe said. Friday didn't understand, so Crusoe explained: Obtaining the plank without effort--for free--would cost him weeks of labor. He'd be unemployed!
The genius of Bastiat's fable is that people will readily spot Crusoe's foolishness. But it is equally certain that few would apply the lesson to the "national economy," which is nothing more than a lot of people, arbitrarily grouped into a "nation," who produce and trade, when permitted, with other people arbitrarily grouped into other "nations."
People can easily see that the free "imported" plank gives Crusoe time to make something else or to relax, but they don't see that imports delivered at prices lower than domestic alternatives similarly free up scarce labor and resources, enabling us to make things we want but hitherto couldn't afford, or to enjoy leisure.
Trade is a labor-saving "device." We each have two legitimate ways to acquire any good: produce it ourselves or acquire it through trade (after producing something else). For most goods, trade will be the lower-cost method. The day is simply too short to make everything we want. Thus trade--no matter with whom--makes us wealthier. When government interferes with trade, it makes us poorer.
Bastiat believed that people found the destruction of cross-border trade ("protectionism") attractive "because, as free trade enables them to attain the same result with less labor, this apparent diminution of labor terrifies them." Why do people who try to save labor every day believe this? Because they mistakenly think a society's principles of well-being are different from those of an individual's. As long as they do, political candidates will feed the bias.
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton may or may not know that trade unfettered at political boundaries makes people wealthier. We need not waste time (which of course could be put to better use) wondering if they are demagogues or just ignoramuses.
Rather, we should devote our scarce energy to understanding that what is good for us individually--saving labor--is good for society.
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Sheldon Richman, who lives in Little Rock, keeps the blog Free Association (sheldonrichman.com).
Editorial on 09/22/2016